Internal-combustion engine.



PATENTBD FEB. 25, 1908.

' H. G. UNDERWOOD.

INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINE.

- APPLIOAT ION'IILED 001126; 1905.

' UNITED sTATEs- PATEN T )FFH iii.

HERBERT (2. UNDERWOOD, OF NEW YORK, N. Y

INTERNAL-COMBUSTION ENGINE.

Patented Feb. 25, 1908.

To all whom it maq concern:

Be it known that I, HERBERT G. U NDER- W001), a citizen of the United States, residing at New Brighton, borough of Richmond, city of New Yorlg, State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Internal-Combustion Engines, of which the following is a specification, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part hereof. Y

This invention relates particularly to igniting devices for internal combustion engines and has for its ob'ect to increase the certainty of ignition while making it unnecessary to employ either an electric igniter or a torch.

The invention will be more fully explained hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings in which it is illustrated as en1- bodied in a convenient and practical form.

The single figure of the drawing is a view in vertical section of the lower portion of an engine showing the arrangement of the igniting devices.

In the engine represented in the drawing the working cylinder is set vertically and is suitably su orted as by struts b.

a is a suita b e supply passage terminating in a supply port a, through which a corn bustible mixture is supplied to the working cylinder at to be com pressed therein as the said piston descends, and a is a suitable exhaust port, these parts being elements commonly. present in internal combustion engines operating upon a two-stroke cycle to which class the engine illustrated belongs.

For the ignition of the charge in the explosion chamber use is made of the roperty possessed by certain bodies, notabl y finely divided platinum, of effecting the ignition of the gases to which they are exposed. Ordinarily thesebodies lose the pro erty referred to after use for a considerab e time, from causes which are not necessary to be more articularly referred to herein, but it has been found in the development of the present invention that under the conditions to which said bodies are exposed in the o eration of internal combustion engines, t e desired quality is retained unimpaired, particularly if the bodies are so placed as to prevent the accumulation of carbon thereon.

It is found that the distribution of gas-oecluding material at different points in the cylinder head secures, under the influence of the compression of the gaseous charge in contact-with the occluding material, certainty of operation, so that ignition takes place without failfwhe'never a proper'mixture of the gaseous material is compressed in the working cylinder. l urthcrmore, through the support of the occluding material at some distance from the extremity of the cylinder head and perhaps the action of the explosion, the occluding material is kept clear andfrce from carbon and retains its peculiar property for a long time in actual use. i

On the cylinder head 0 is supported a-plate p, insulated. from the cylinder head by lugs from-jumping up by pins or screws 1)". On the plate p or on the cylinder head, are

having somewhat contracted mouths q", while the tubular supports q may open through the plate p to communicate with the space between it and the cylinder head.

preferably supported just within the mouths of the tubular supports q, q and during the compression of the charge in the working cylinder the occluding bodies are thus exaction of such bodies in effecting the ignition of the mixture is more prompt and-certain than is'the case when such bodies are located in a body of the mixture which has no movement at or near the instant of greatest compressionf I might be located otherwise than as shown in Fig. 4, which illustrates merely a convenient arrangement thereof. The shell of the tubular support 7 is shown as extended through igniter if desired at any time.

I claim as myi'nvention: i

, 1. In an internal combustion engine of the compression type, the combination of a working cylimler; a piston; a tubular support car'- ried by the cylinder head and projecting into the clearance space, said support being in permanently open communication at two points remote from each other with the in adjacent the upper end thereof.

2. in an internal combustion engine of the compression type, the combination of a working cylinder; a piston; a tubular support carried by the cylinder head and projecting into the clearance space, said support being in permanently open communi ation at both 1) which hold it away therefrom and held formed tubular supports q, q, preferably 'lhe occluding material, indicated at n is posed to currents of the mixture and the the head 0 for the application of a torch' Obviously the tubular supports terior of the working cylinder; and a gas oceluding body located within said supportand its ends with the interior oil the working cylinder and a gas occluding body located within said support andadjacent theupper end thereof. f

3. In an'internal combustionengine of the compression. type, the combination of a working cylinder; a, piston; 11 late Within the. cylinder carried by the 'cylin er head and 1111- and agas occluding body located within said su ort and adjacent the upper end thereof. 15 's]-lspecification' signe' and witnessed this 24th day 0f October -1'905.

EniiERT G. UNDERWoon; v

slilated therefrom; a tubular support carried Signed in the resence of'v by said plate and projecting into the clear-- ance space, said support being in perma- Tnom's QCANTY, W. 'BLGRULE 

